Around the House Tip: Freezing Portions

I often have recipes that call for just a small portion of a can of tomato paste or a jar of broth, and end up with the majority of the container leftover. Usually I freeze the leftovers because I just don’t use them quickly enough, but then the next time you need a small amount of the broth you have to thaw a big jar of it to get the bit you want. Annoying!

Solution: freeze in small portions!

Once I’ve taken the broth I need for the recipe I’m making, I pour the rest out into half cup measures for freezing. The little Glad brand cups are exactly a half cup and are great for this function!

I just line ’em up and pour! Put these individual containers into the freezer overnight and in the morning you’ll have little broth pucks. I pop the broth out of the cups and into a Ziploc bag for freezer storage to save on freezer space and keep everything contained. (TIP: Frozen plastic storage containers crack and break easily. Rather than flexing the plastic to get the broth out, run warm water on the bottom of the container with the lid still on to soften things up a bit).

I label the bags with the date I froze the broth and the portion measure. Next time I need a half cup of broth I can just take out a puck instead of thawing the whole batch!!! This works great for other smaller things too. I freeze tomato paste in little 1 Tbsp scoops, and my mom uses her ice cube try to freeze pestos and other herb purees!